Problemas and my new nickname...

So today I was what you call in spanish 'enojada'

Recently we have being going out to the villages to elect the community leaders who will then participate at the local level of government to solicite projects and programs for thier villages.(COCODES) Each time we go out I get so frustrated with how horribly organized the elections are. In the last village they voted by someone from the mayor´s office going up to each person individually and asking the vote and annoucing it outloud over a microphone to mark it on a whiteboard in front of everyone.(which as you can imagine took forever! in the hot sun) I suppose this could be looked at as transperancy, it can also be looked at as manipulation, intimidation, and partiality considering the person asking for their vote is part of a political party himself and obviously has his own priorities.(He even told me so.) It kind of appauls me actually that they do it this way, especially when almost 40 people refused to give thier vote, and most women can barely speak up to their husband much less infront of the whole community with everyone watching.

But here's the problem, noone trusts anyone. Which I knew, but not really to this extent until today. Instead of explaining anything to me, my co-workers reaction to my "I want to better the system of votation" was "no we will not" and swiftly walking away from me. I found it extremely rude, considering he didn't even know my suggestion yet.

What I wished to propose today was a vote with beans and buckets. The idea is that each person has 1 bean or "vote" and each bucket represents the contendors, and you simply put your bean in the bucket of your choice. That way you don't have to write anything for those who can't and your not annoucing every vote on a loudspeaker. But apparently my co-worker doesn't agree because people are so mistrusting that they will say we rig the beans, that others rig the beans, or maybe even that the beans with rig themselves, who knows.

But since he never explained his point of view and just told me "no," well I got up some nerve and said to myself 'I'm tired of being ignored here, and my spanish is finally good enough to serve me, and I have something good to say and I am going to be heard g*d d*mn*t.' and went right up to him and told him to never talk to me like that again, that it was rude, and that I will be listened to and if you don't agree that's fine but I deserve a good answer.

Aparently I came off as a little fuerte (or strong). ok alot fuerte... I have now broken any image of being a nice, calm person, and have now adopted a new nickname. Brava.

I hope it serves me well.

Peace, Love, haha
Robin